We'll Always Have Silver.
The quadrennial celebration of proxy nationalism through sport has concluded
Welcome to the Guelph Politico Tip Sheet, a thrice-a-week newsletter meant to “tip” you off about some of the important stuff going on in the Royal City. It arrives directly in your inbox now on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings.
The Wellington Guelph Drug Strategy issued a health alert Friday after “at least” 22 drug poisonings, including two deaths, in the past week in Guelph and Wellington County.
It looks like funding to finally finish the Goderich to Guelph (G2G) Rail Trail has been secured.
A family-owned furniture chain in Waterloo Region says that new recycling costs from the producer-paid system is costing their business and is not sustainable.
The OPP is investigating multiple cases of extortion around the region. These cases have included threats of violence including gunfire at homes and businesses.
An escalation in tensions between the Mexican military and the drug cartels has Canadian sunbirds sheltering in place while the Canadian government warns travellers to “exercise a high degree of caution.”
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Here’s last week’s Police Notes entry.
A new medical imaging centre just opened in Guelph with the hopes of relieving some of the demand for diagnostics.
A “crash-prone” intersection along Highway 6 in Centre Wellington has been the site of 84 different collisions in the last decade, and one-fifth of those has been in the last year alone.
If you combined all the pay, benefits and expenses for the 16 members of Wellington County Council, it would have been worth $1.3 million last year.
A Rockwood barber will be offering gender affirming haircuts in a safe, inclusive space in their barbershop on March 7.
Waterloo Regional Police are investigating after it was reported that threats and “racially charged comments” were made toward a Grand River Transit bus driver in Cambridge on Saturday afternoon.
An assault on a snow plow operator in Peterborough is part of a concerning trend of attacks on municipal workers.
Meanwhile, in Niagara-on-the-Lake, the CAO there says that staff will no longer respond to “opinion-based requests” and will only talk to members of the media who focus on “matters of fact and policy by reporters acting in a reporting capacity.”
Canada’s First Nations leaders have their own list of priorities for the federal government. At the same time, Indigenous Canadians are being warned to keep their passports on them as they travel in the United States (probably has something to do with this).
The Tumbler Ridge shooter had their ChatGDP account banned last year after it was flagged for misuse in “furtherance of violent activities.”
Interestingly, a new poll says that Canada is more united today than it was back in 2019.
The WDG Public Health respiratory illness dashboard shows that the current rate of emergency room visits due to respiratory illness is down to 10.76 per cent, which is below the trend line at 11.91 per cent. The number of flu patients from the January peak has taken a huge dip here at the end of February with two flu patients, two with COVID-19 and one with RSV in area hospitals. The wastewater signal from the University of Guelph hasn’t been updated.
OUTBREAKS: The number of outbreaks has ticked up in the last couple of weeks. There’s COVID-19 in the Village of Riverside Glen and Heritage House, plus seasonal coronavirus in Caressant Care in Fergus. There’s RSV in the Caressant Care in Harriston and Highland Manor in Fergus and an unknown respiratory illness in Dufferin Oaks in Shelburne and Wellington Terrace in Fergus.
Transit Detours/Notices:
REMINDER: Routes #3 Westmount, #10 Paisley, #11 Silvercreek, #12 Delhi, #13 Eastview, and #20 Northwest Industrial will be detoured away from their stops in St. George’s Square due to construction for the foreseeable future.
Upcoming Construction:
Nothing to report.
Coming up this week on the Guelph Politicast, we will talk to the Breezy Breakfast crowd. No, really. If you weren’t able to be there in person, or online, we will go back to my appearance at last week’s Breezy Breakfast outing at Uptown Grill as we dig into the State of the City, city hall secrets and Mayor Guthrie’s potential electoral vulnerabilities this fall.
Get the latest edition of the Guelph Politicast on Wednesday.
On Wednesday, tune in to CFRU at 3 pm for another episode of End Credits. This week, Peter Salmon co-hosts as we dig into some CanCon now in theatres. Laugh along with us as we tackle Nirvanna The Band The Show The Movie, and we will wrap up Black Heritage Month by digging into two films made by the late great John Singleton, Poetic Justice and Shaft.
Listen to all these shows any time by subscribing to the Guelph Politicast channel on your favourite podcast app at Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
There will be a meeting of the Guelph Public Library Board tonight in the program room at the Guelph Public Library at 6 pm.
“Run Where You Are - Say Yes!”, an event that’s promoting participation in local elections this year for women and gender-diverse folk, will take place online on Tuesday February 24.
The next meeting of the Arts and Culture Advisory Committee is on Thursday February 26 at 5 pm in the city hall meeting rooms and online.
There will be a town hall with the Ward 2 city councillors on Thursday February 26 from 6-8 pm in the Marg McKinnon Room at city hall.
The next meeting of the Grand River Conservation Authority board will be on Friday February 27 at 9:30 am on YouTube and the administration centre in Cambridge.
Drs. David Suzuki and Tara Cullis will talk about a lifetime together in marriage and environmental activism on the River Run stage on Sunday March 1.
The next meeting of Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Board of Health will be held online on Wednesday March 4 at 2 pm. (The agenda will be posted soon on WDGPH website.)
The annual Women United Ignite event will take place on Wednesday March 4 from 5:30 to 8 pm at the Co-operators headquarters on Cooper Drive.
The Heritage Advisory Committee will have their March meeting on Thursday March 5 at noon at city hall and online. (The agenda will be posted soon on the City’s website.)
Guelph Wellington Women in Crisis will be hosting their annual International Women’s Day community celebration on Sunday March 8 from 11 am-1 pm at the Guelph Farmer’s Market.
Finally, feel free to reach out to me by email at adamadonaldson [at] gmail [dot] com, or find me on Facebook, Twitter, and, of course, GuelphPolitico.ca!